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Posts Tagged ‘David Perdue’

Going Off: Post 2014 Election Analysis

Posted in politics, tagged , , , , , , , , on November 5, 2014| 23 Comments »

The Democrats failed in the mid-term elections for reasons that were clear to most—except them.  I knew a year ago (no five years ago) that I would be writing these points today.

Money: Dems in Georgia raised and spent enough money for Nunn and Carter to win but they spent it in the wrong places.  Most voters are unaware of the cottage industry surrounding elections, an industry that centers on Buckhead in Atlanta.  First, you find a candidate who can raise tons of dollars with our friends then you hire our other friends to run the campaigns and still other friends to produce and do media buys for a zillion TV ads. How many people didn’t vote because they were weary from campaign ads?

The people inside this cottage industry won the election a year ago when they secured legacy candidates like Michelle Nunn and Jason Carter, rich fellows like David Perdue and sitting congressmen like Jack Kingston and a few others.  They had the money makers.

Better Money: If Nunn and Carter listened to seasoned cats like Sanford Bishop, they would have cut the media buy money by a third and put that money on old school street teams outside of Atlanta.  When the original Carter and Nunn were winning in the 1970s, the Dems knew to secure the support of old ball coaches, funeral directors, barbers, pastors and other community leaders.  These community leaders would put together teams of workers who made a few dollars.  Grandmothers would be so proud that their family members were involved and leading rallies.

I knew Michelle Nunn would make a great senator but her work history involving volunteerism concerned me from the start.  Black folks aren’t volunteering when they can see that you spent millions on T.V. ads.  They should have spent those millions on rally D.J.s and those free hot dog trucks.  Food and old school music will get the crowd out and that’s when you hook them with warmth.

Learning from Florida: There are two important lessons we can learn this election season from our neighbors to the south.  First, Gwen Graham won a U.S. House in North Florida by striking a correct balance between T.V. ads and community events.  Of course, she is from a famous political family but she rolled up her sleeves and pressed pressed pressed the flesh at dozens of free food events.  Hey, we like free food and Frankie Beverly music.  Graham took it home last week with a free Jimmy Buffet show…nice.

Secondly, Governor Rick Scott narrowly won reelection by running up the numbers in rural areas to counterbalance big Dem numbers in the Florida cities.  In Georgia, we have city Blacks in Atlanta, Blacks in the next five cities (Columbus, Albany, Macon, Savannah and Augusta) and rural Blacks.  Obviously, the plan was to get metro Atlanta to balance the GOP’s rural base.  But, those Blacks in Atlanta are real liberals who weren’t going to get pumped up to help Michelle Nunn while she ran from President Obama and ran to Governor/Senator Zell Miller.  Yes, Miller was a great Georgian back when but he spoke at the GOP national convention for Obama’s opponent. Black folks have memories.  On the other hand, rural Blacks are more conservative and more likely to support moderates like Sanford Bishop.  The Democrat efforts should have started by listening to Bishop.

Second guessing: The Democrat Party in Georgia spent the last year trying to get White Republicans to switch back…newsflash “They are gone.”  The party spent less energy getting the Obama base out.

Future: Michelle Nunn is still a big winner because she is position to be the Dem Senate candidate when Senator Isakson retires.  Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed would be the natural candidate but you know the cottage industry mentioned above must eat and they eat exceptionally well.  Again, getting money is more important than winning.

Black diversity: This blog started years ago as an effort to convince our community to take a better look at the details of politics and policymaking.  Both major political parties have incorrect approaches to us.  We need to take a hard look at the role political hope plans in how we carry ourselves because the parties and the government are indirectly hurting us.

Hillary 2016: Not so fast, we need to talk.

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“A Woman’s Place Is In The House…or Senate” vs. “Pale, Yale and Male”

Posted in politics, tagged , , , , , , , , , on October 21, 2014| 6 Comments »

In the last fifty years, there have been only two women in the Georgia congressional delegation..Rep. Cynthia McKinney and Rep. Denise Majette.  When national decisions are made, various voices need to be heard at the table.

Michelle Nunn is running for the U.S. Senate against super-rich David Perdue and I simply have a problem with sending another dude into the world most exclusive fraternity.   Oh, both candidates have produced bios that highlight humbleness but Perdue is a scary combination of older and richer—$20 million a year richer.  When you have stacks like Perdue, the average guy is cog in your huge money-making machine.

Why don’t you see liberal women’s political group pounding the pavement in their Birkenstocks for Michelle Nunn?  They aren’t pumped because she is a moderate/centrist like Rep. Sanford Bishop and Rep. John Barrow rather than a real liberal as the GOP claims.  The Democrats are a bigger tent than the Republicans because the discussion should involve everyone.  You know macho dudes in Congress are quick to send our daughters and sons in uniform to foreign battlefields (which are now house to house) while women will demand a rationale, mission statement and exit strategy.

I was watching a PBS documentary on Women’s Lib and they said that the State Department was once Pale, Male and Yale.  Yale was the Ivy League school of choice for rich southerners.  We have come a long way to have Secretaries of State named Madilyn, Colin, Condoleezza and Hillary.  I am a tennis player and in that PBS doc Billie Jean King said that when she played Bobby Riggs in the Astrodome, a woman couldn’t have a credit card in her own name.  However, the struggle continues.

To be honest, Georgia political bloggers should admit that Michelle Nunn’s campaign is, to some limited degree, about Hillary Clinton for president.  If Michelle Nunn for Senate and Jason Carter for Governor do well, Georgia will be on the table for 2016.   The Clinton campaign will model their southern efforts after what worked or didn’t work here.

The biggest Democrat problem during this mid-term election is lack of Black voter interest.  Some watchers feel the Dem Team has spent more money, time and energy trying to get Republicans back to the Blue Team than securing the loyal Black and Blue base.  They need to get their stuff together with a quickness because presidential hopeful Senator Rand Paul is saying some things that are starting to resonate in my community.

I was tailgating at the FSU-Norte Dame game last weekend and the Gwen Graham for Congress people were out in full force.  Senator Bob Graham was in our tent and he taught his daughter how to work a crowd.  Michelle Nunn has a different nature than Gwen Graham and that is cool.  Senator Saxby Chambliss is a southern gentleman who respectfully dialoged with Democrats and the Obama White House as part of his duties.  Michelle Nunn would do the same with a motherly vibe.   A woman’s place is in the House…and Senate….and State Department…..and 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

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Wow, Senate candidate David Perdue blasted Jack Kingston on Kids Working for School Lunches and Michelle Nunn Isn’t Really a Liberal Democrat

Posted in politics, tagged , , , , , on October 17, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Last winter, Senate candidate Jack Kingston said kids should pay a little something or work for school lunches to build character.  I didn’t notice that fellow candidate David Perdue put him on blast for that statement.

http://zpolitics.com/perdue-fires-a-shot-at-kingstons-free-lunch/

 

The play callers on the Dem Team must be out of touch with the average Americans because that statement in a statewide discussion would bring many unlikely voters to the polls.  The statement could divide the GOP voters who supported Kingston in the primary if they felt Perdue was tossing Jack under the bus.  Do we see Jack campaigning with Perdue in southeast Georgia?  In the next two debates, the reporters should ask Perdue how he feels about the school lunch issue today because if he vacillates, the far Right wing of their party might bounce on him.

 

Would my Black Republican friends please screen the TV ads before they air?  Geez.  We know the Dems need unlikely voters to turnout but the energy is weak so far.  Obama supporters weren’t making the connection between Michelle Nunn winning and Obama avoiding a Republican controlled U.S. Senate that might impeach him.  Then, these GOP geniuses starting these out of context pictures of Nunn and Obama smiling together…”Michelle Nunn will work for Obama’s liberal agenda.” Thanks to those one zillion ads, unlikely voters now get the importance of voting and for the record, the picture was taken at a President Bush event.

These are the same fools who might have beaten Rep. Sanford Bishop a few years back in they stayed on the fiscal issues but instead they started saying constructed character crap and that’s when my community got busy in defense of the homie.

 

“Michelle Nunn is a liberal.”  Let’s see, how many liberals would “I love conservatives” Zell Miller appear with in an ad.  Hell, she is Sam Nunn’s daughter.  Senator Sam Nunn was one of the last Dixiecrats; he did what he wanted to do when he wanted to do it because he wanted to do it.  I was on the Hill as a staffer in the Georgia delegation at the time and Senate Nunn was in a party of one; he was a moderate between the two parties.   The peach doesn’t fall to far from the tree.

 

Barrack Obama went into the White House with the hope of working across party lines or even erasing said lines altogether.  It didn’t happen and both parties basically suck today.  Nunn and Perdue are both refreshing outsiders but Nunn wants to build bridges and find solutions.  Perdue seems like a pleasant fellow but he is bring zany Sen. Ted Cruz, the biggest Obama hater in Congress, to the peach state to campaign for him….birds of a feather.

http://politics.blog.ajc.com/2014/10/16/ted-cruz-to-rally-for-nathan-deal-david-perdue/

 

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Really?: Senate candidate David Perdue vs. President Barrack Obama

Posted in politics, tagged , , , on October 8, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Those who voted President Obama into office allow people to treat him like a punk (I thought punk was softer than “little something that rhymes with switch”).  It’s like we set this gentleman up.

The election next month to the Republicans is a referendum on the Obama White House.  The governor race in Georgia is about jobs, the port of Savannah, education reform and Obamacare.  Remember, the Republicans talked about Obama, his wife, his dead parents and his dog then wanted the White House to support funding for the deepening of the Savannah Port, which means thousands of jobs in this region.  Hint: when you are going to need something from someone, you should be somewhat respectful.

Oh, the U.S. Senate race in Georgia is even better.  GOP candidate David Perdue has declared that he is running against Barrack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.  If Perdue wins, he could be the deciding seat to control of the Senate and if the Republicans control the Senate and House, Obama will be impeached and could be removed from office.  But, all you people who were crying tears of joy when Obama was elected are too busy to early vote.

In the recent Senate candidate debate in Perry, David Perdue and Michelle Nunn both showed that they are senatorial.  After Herman Cain and Donald Trump, I get a little leery of confidant private sector guys seeking glory in government.  Governing isn’t as easy as it looks.  Rev. Al Sharpton and Rev. Jesse Jackson get the same leeriness from the liberal activist side.  Hey, any jackass can kick down a barn but it takes a carpenter to build one.

When I was a kid, I was impressed with Sam Nunn’s bumper sticker “a workhorse..not a show horse.”  David Perdue should be playing a senator in the movies.  He is a tall guy who knows how to wear a denim jacket like a cowboy….collar up, cowboy up.  Can he relate to regular people?

Michelle Nunn seems professorial and puts me in the mind of Eleanor Roosevelt. We should remember that she is Sam Nunn’s daughter and when I worked on the Hill, Sam Nunn was a party of one—he had icon status in the game.  The idea that she will be a puppet for the White House is silly political theater.

She seems to understand that both parties need adjusting and improvements can only come from Senators working together with their “dear colleagues.”   Look, the House of Representatives has always been a rough bunch by design but the Senate is elegant and smooth.   There will be nothing smooth about a junior Senator who thinks he is the Marlboro Man and who plans to constantly attack the sitting American president in a disrespectful manner.  The next time I disrespect the office of the President will be the first time and I remember Nixon’s last days.

Oh, Mr. Perdue is a smart fellow and if I were he I would be doing just what he is doing.  He can’t run against Michelle Nunn in the current climate because the Senate really needs a compassionate mother’s voice from Georgia to balance a delegation full of Dem and GOP dudes with too much macho testosterone coursing in their veins.  Actually, Perdue could be a Trojan House.  He seems friendly and nice but he just needs the keys to the gate.  Nothing is new because I never thought that my congressman Austin Scott would be ghost to my community.  But, his visits to certain areas is limited because the GOP doesn’t like it’s folks listening to others.

Bottomline:  The Republicans are playing possum with Obama impeachment because they are discipline like that but they want to humiliate this president and his so-called supporters are standing idly around as the drama goes down.  Obamacrats might be the real punks but it’s not too late to spoil the haters’ plans.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/10/08/michelle-nunn-nailed-it-on-the-obama-question/

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Leaving Black Votes on the Table: What Jack Kingston should have learned from Thad Cochran

Posted in politics, tagged , , , , , , , , on July 23, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Rep. Jack Kingston could have won the primary runoff easily in the Black community but the wrong cats must have been in his ear.  We are talking about the same Jack who has frequently visited and represented Savannah State University for years.

Military bases and the agriculture industry are the economic backbones of non-Atlanta parts of Georgia but no one had the idea to get 6,000 or so votes from Democrats who Jack has helped time and time again.  Look, I live in little Worth County and Kingston got 605 votes here but in huge Albany with a Marine base, Jack only received 655 votes.  Say what?

It’s the proverbial two-edged sword.  The consultants around the Kingston campaign knew that he needed  Tea Party support to win the primary and the Tea Party will not vote for anyone who gets any votes from moderates.

Was anyone in the Kingston camp watching the Thad Cochran Senate primary in Mississippi?  Cochran turned to the Black community for enough support to get over the top; he sought his old friends.  Jack Kingston has more old friends on the Democrat side than any House Republican from Georgia.

I just talked with Georgia Secretary of State’s office and they confirmed that people who didn’t vote in the primary election could have voted for either side in the runoff.  The right Black community leaders in Savannah alone could have gotten out 6,000 Black votes on the strength of Jack’s closeness to our community and long history of hiring Black staffers in key position. But, they decided to leave that on the table.

To be honest, Democrats wanted to see Kingston vs. Michelle Nunn because Jack has a long history of statement about President Obama.  Nunn will not say it nor think it but Black folks coming out to vote in November will be as much about helping the Obama administration have a Democrat-controlled Senate as much as it is about her….and that is okay.

When David Perdue’s cousin took the governor’s office from Roy Barnes, some people vote for Sonny Perdue but many people voted against Barnes over the confederate flag and a teachers issue.  You win how you can.  David Perdue shouldn’t say the word “Obama” until Christmas but he will…the far Right will require that he does.  The attacks on Obama will drive Obama supporters to the polls and if Nunn can secure a few percentage points from suburban GOP women, she wins and helps the Dems hold the U.S. Senate.

Mrs. Nunn must know that Get Out the Vote and street operations will be as important as T.V. ads.  Remember, if Jack had half the street operations that Thad Cochran had, he would have won.

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Questions before the Georgia Senate Runoff

Posted in politics, tagged , , , , , , on June 7, 2014| 2 Comments »

David Perdue, Jack Kingston

Georgia primary voters should think long and hard before next month’s runoff election.  I give myself credit for being a moderate Democrat who voted in the Republican primary because that’s where the action was in this generally red state.  So, I get to vote in the runoff and important questions must be addressed.  For the record, my interests focus on improving our state more that supporting either major political party because parties are mostly interested in power and control.

  1. Will Jack Kingston explain his comments about school kids working for free lunch?  Readers of this blog know I like Jack but that was some dirty dirty design to secure the nut vote.  Shall we humiliates children who were born into families of modest means?   Does the same apply to summer lunch programs?  Is that for high school and middle school only are will 7 year olds be mopping also?  I will say that Democrat leaders on the national level want Kingston in November because that one comment could tip the election by driving young voters to the polls.  “He wants my little sister to clean food trays!?”

 

  1. Are Michelle Nunn and David Perdue Obama-like in their newness?  I am about to hit you with a new angle on the Senate race: because Nunn and Perdue are new to the political arena they don’t have a record of statements and actions like Jack Kingston now and the Clintons in 2008.  Hillary Clinton might have made a better president (to some) in 2008 but we would have never known because the conservatives would have rallied behind Romney to keep the Clintons out of the White House.  Smart Republicans know that Perdue would be safer.

 

  1. How do we want the world to see our state?  I have a problem with President Obama.  While he is still my guy, he speaks of the USA that should be rather than the USA that is.  He see a fair, positive colorfree nation and that simply isn’t reality.  Ole Jack Kingston is similar to the average Georgian and me but doesn’t attract new industry.  David Perdue is a corporate baller who can represent an international city like Atlanta.  Chambliss and Isakson are balanced gentleman and Perdue seems senatorial like them.  Kingston has done a fine job representing southeast Georgia but we should remember that Port of Savannah funding might have been delayed because Jack couldn’t or wouldn’t get the crazies on the far Right to dial down the anti-Obama vitriol.  Perdue’s handlers are messing up because they should be spinning his time at Dollar General as a job creator in my community.  Oh, we love those baby Wal-marts on every corner in forgotten neigborhoods.

 

  1. Is Hillary Clinton reading Nunn’s putt?  In golf, players watch their playing partner’s putts to judge the greens and the line.  I think Team Hillary is watching the 2014 performance of moderate Democrat women candidates to craft their 2016 approach to the South and to gauge which states are winnable.  A Michelle Nunn win puts Georgia on the table for Hillary because some GOP women put gender over party—that’s why they should have selected Karen Handel.

 

  1.  Would the Democrats prefer Kingston or Perdue in November?  I think Dems want Kingston for the school lunch thing and the southern drawl.  Yes, I am country my dam self but Jack pours that southern twang on like Karo syrup to the delight of rural voters.  But, when Dem voters in Georgia six biggest cities pay attention in the fall,  it will be on and popping because he sounds like an overseer on Roots.

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U.S Senate Race and Public Assistance: Help the Needy vs. Help the Seedy

Posted in politics, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 23, 2014| Leave a Comment »

You can’t think about public policy for the needy in the South without coming across several related Bible verses.  2 Thessalonians 3:10 says “For even when we were with you, this is what we commanded you: that if any would not work, neither should he eat.”

But, we should also consider Psalm 82:2-4 “How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked?  Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.  Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked.”

Look, no one thinks of themselves as wicked and I am not calling anyone wicked.  However, some good people in politics and policy will do some somewhat devious things to win the battle and hopefully the war.

Everyone hates seeing hungry people and particularly hungry children.  Reasonable folks fairly state that those people got themselves into their circumstances with questionable life choices and personal responsibility.  It burns a taxpayer up to get into an old truck to leave a shift at a plant after standing 12 hours in steel-toed shoes then past grown fathers standing on the corner—guys who are too proud or crazy to do manual labor, pick crops or flip burgers.

The radio in that old pickup is blasting far Right talk radio in that worker’s ear.  “Your tax dollars provided those assistance checks, food stamps and free school lunches…you are sweating over a drill press while that bum plays video games all day in government assisted housing and sips malt liquor that was purchased with money intended for hungry kids.”  Dam, I am writing this stuff too easily…have I been watching Fox News.

We live in a free society; this isn’t North Korea or China.  Dictating better living isn’t legal.  So, children are born into struggling situations but Jesus wouldn’t want us to let them starve because their parents made bad choices.

The Farm Bill is the law that directs USDA programs and therefore seriously impacts the South.  Back when members of congress talked across the aisle, the farm bill supported commodity programs (which helped farm families) and provide food assistance programs (which helped farm families by creating  additional markets.)  Today, the far Right wanted to end most food assistance to force needy people to work and stop having kids they can’t afford.  Social media was a buzzed this week with the story of a seedy woman with 15 kids who upset that the government wasn’t doing more to help her.  Say what? I watch the news video about this family but paused it to say a little pray for those kids.

http://nation.foxnews.com/homelessness/2011/12/01/homeless-lady-15-kids-somebody-needs-pay-all-my-children

 

The school lunch/breakfast program ensures that needy kids have two meals a day five days a week during the school year.  Without those meals, the hospitals would be packed with malnourished kids and that cost would be astronomical.  Of course, hungry kids can’t focus on classwork so the labor force would be untrained and looking for ways to make fast money.  Fast money leads to prison at a cost of $35,000 a year.

U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston is the best House Republican from the Georgia but as a Senate candidate even Jack started tripping.  Kingston has represented chocolate city Savannah for 20 years, he was worked in chocolate city D.C. for the same 20 years and he has served during that time on the House Ag Committee and/or the Appropriations Sub-Committee on Agriculture.  Jack is UDSA food programs like the back of his hand.

If Kingston really said that needy kids should work at the school to pay off their free lunch, he was saying that to get Senate primary votes.  He knows that would never happen nor would he want that to happen.  So, poor people, people who grew up poor (Black, White and Brown) and those of us with compassion for the poor make up a bloc of voters who some in the GOP are simple writing off.

I watched the GOP Senate primary like a hawk and waited to see how much campaign would be done in the Black community.  Karen Handel had a wealth of supporters in the ATL and Jack has always shown the flag in every community in his district.  I never heard these two candidates making overtures to the Black community because there are few primary voters there.   For the record, I am a moderate Dem who voted in the GOP primary because that was where the action was.

Surprisingly, former Dollar General executive David Perdue was the only GOP senate candidate that my Black GOP friends said reached out to the non GOP Black community; he supposedly met with 32 Black pastors in the Albany area.  I like that right there.

I told those same GOP friends that they can mark my word:  the school lunch comment by Kingston would drive out thousands of occasional voters—it’s a hornet’s nest.  Voters sometimes vote for candidates and sometimes vote against candidates.  Remember, the confederate flag drama drove some people to vote against then Governor Roy Barnes….hell, some of them didn’t know David Perdue’s cousin Sonny at the time.

People who live off checks provide to assist kids are seedy.  Blue Dog Democrats supported Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich’s welfare reform that included work or training requirements.  As Justice Clarence grandfather taught him, public assistance makes people weak and dependent.

However, Democrat blood will boil when the T.V. ads run next fall featuring kids mopping schools as their friends laugh.  I think control of the U.S. Senate for the last two years of Obama presidency hang on that school lunch comment.  Oh, it’s going to be on and popping when child nutrition supporter Michelle Obama and Orpah see that YouTube video.   School lunch programs also teach kids about healthy food choice and that education leads to better eating as adults.

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2014 Primary Big Picture: Golden Opportunities About To Be Squandered

Posted in politics, tagged , , , , , , on May 6, 2014| Leave a Comment »

The primary elections next month will place the foundation for what kind of Georgia we want to have.  With secondary consideration for party politics, I want to point out a different view of a few candidates.

Helen Blocker Adams, Augusta Mayor: Helen has a heart of gold and I have never ever known a person so committed to a place.  Augusta is an old boys city but Helen is about bridging the divide between regular folks and that is a good thing.

Aaron Johnson, Dougherty County School Board: We hear too much about elected officials who aren’t smart or those who don’t spend time explaining policy and budgets to the people.  Well, Aaron Johnson can break macroeconomics down so smoothly that I can understand it.  Look, one of the biggest problems with personal responsibility is that regular folks don’t get the limited role of government or grasp governmental fiscal constraints.  Well, you have an econ professor who has sat on a dozen citizen boards running for school board and he is neck and neck with a nice Country Club type lady who attended private school.  Really?   Actually, Johnson’s opponent did a fine job in the candidate forum at Darton College but she would be a better city commissioner than school board member.

The big picture about Aaron Johnson tossing his hat into the ring is that his hat should be in another ring in a few  years.  He likely doesn’t like the speculation but I don’t care.  His students emailed this blog years ago to say that he should be considered for Congress when Rep. Sanford Bishop retires.  Dude clearly loves his wife, baby, college, and church too much to start that fly to DC every Sunday night stuff.  But, I hate the Georgia congressional map because I want Albany to have a congressman, Macon to have and congressman and Columbus to have a congresswoman.  We don’t need to share.  To me, the election of Aaron Johnson to school board would give  him years to work in K-12 education and preps him to be one of our best shots at having congressman from our part of Georgia.

Vivian Childs, U.S. Congress:  The GOP is giving lip service to wanting to dialog with the minority community.  Who better to do that than someone from said minority community?  During the primary season, I have personally seen Mrs. Childs warmly discussing issues with Black voters who welcomed her to the discussion table.  Okay, they didn’t know she was a Republican because they never met one who wasn’t angry or ticked off.  Oh, she is just as ticked off as the rest of them but as a Black woman she knows how to channel that energy into productive action.  Why is Vivian Childs a member of Delta Sigma Theta who hasn’t use that bond as a campaign opportunity?  I think she is too nice to play the soror card but that niceness is her best tool at breaking Rep. Sanford Bishop’s lock on the second district. Well, she has gotten her foot into doors that never would have opened for other GOP candidates.

 

U.S. Senate Race:  First of all, the race for U.S. Senator from Georgia is really a midterm referendum on the Obama White House.  Control of the Senate by the Dems or the GOP will likely come down to this one seat.  I have choice words for people who help put President Obama in office but aren’t wise enough to know that he needs Dem control of the Senate to finish his presidency properly.

If this Senate seat stays with the GOP, I hope it will be a Republican who doesn’t ignore Blacks folks because so many of us are with the Blue team.  Yea, I will be a Democrat voting in the GOP primary to select a quality person if Michelle Nunn doesn’t win in November.

Karen Handel, U.S. Senate: GOP candidates seem to be running away from Blacks who know them and who have supported them in the past.  Karen Handel graduated from Frederick Douglas High in Maryland but you don’t hear about that from her team.  Plus, she was chairwoman of the Fulton County Commission.  Black folks know her but her handlers must equate Black with liberal and are trying not to alienate the far Right.  Check this out right here, if she had some of those Black friends a few years ago, she would be governor today.

Jack Kingston, U.S. Senate: Savannah is a chocolate city and Jack has had a functioning relationship with the Black community on the coast for over 20 years.  His knowledge of agriculture and the military makes him the GOP candidate best suited to serve the interests of Georgia south of Atlanta.  But, Jack is alienating Black voters in the process of impressing the far right with his level fiscal conservatism.  Jack is still a good dude.

David Perdue, U.S. Senate:  First, Perdue is an outsider who made me laugh with his ad about the congress being made up of babies and his opponents being babies.  The Karen Handel baby was wearing her signature pearls.  Funny.  But on a serious note, a Black GOP friend, yes I have those, told me that Perdue came to Albany and sat down with 32 local pastors.  So, he seems to be the only GOP Senate candidate who is talking with my community during the primary process.

Summary: Voters should consider the big picture next month because politics as usual simply isn’t working.

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Georgia Election Summit: Put It On the Table

Posted in politics, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 12, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Everyone has agendas this election year and there is much to sort out.  My agenda is based on the best interest of Georgia and the South but the word trump has always been a cornerstone of this blog.

To me, some factors “trump” other factors and the factors of race, faith, region, country, money, and gender can be prioritized 100 different ways by 100 different people.  For example, a local congressional candidate from a different party knows person X’s interest better than a candidate from X’s party from the other side of the area.  At the end of the day, Colin Powell and Condi Rice care more about Black people than the Red party.  Actually, they joined the Red party because in their hearts they felt they were helping every American.

If I won the sweepstakes, I would use some of that money to convene a summit on the Black agenda for this election year in middle Georgia.  The meeting would include folks from both major political parties and of every racial background.  While the “Changing Mindset” outline found as a tab at the top of this blog would be the central theme, some other matters need to be put on the table.

https://projectlogicga.com/changing-mindsets/

 

Voter Suppression: It’s clear that some leaders of the GOP plan to counterbalance changing demographics by making it hard for certain people to vote. President Obama recent comments on this topic should be heard.

http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/obama-takes-on-assaults-to-voting-rights-223929923741

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/obama-the-real-voter-fraud-is-people-who-try-to-deny-our-rights/

 

Georgia 2nd Congressional District race:  As quiet as it is kept, many Black Republicans know that the voter suppression efforts from their party is hogwash.  These good Americans believe that the conservative agenda is in the best interest of everyone and that silly tricks and shady methods drive reasonable people away from their party.

GOP primary voters have the opportunity to select a candidate, Vivian Childs, who might plant the seeds that change the whole political arena.  Let’s be honest, the GOP often pushes Black candidates who seem a little bland on the Black hand side.  With the trump matter in mind, Vivian Childs, Andrew and Deborah Honeycutt, Karen Bogans in Savannah and Michael Murphy are Black Georgians who are conservative but they lived in the Black world, attend Black churches, and likely have Black gold fish.  I personally saw Mrs. Childs in fellowship with her sorority sister, the ladies of Delta Sigma Theta.

Fraternity and sorority trumps political party in my community and you can best believe that the Childs campaign will never function in a way that dishonors her bond.  Okay, I worked for Rep. Sanford Bishop and I was dumfounded by the ugliness of some previous campaigns—hell, if they kept the debate civic they would have won.  Childs vs. Bishop would have a residual benefit of showing how to disagree without being disagreeable.

President Obama On the Ballot: Oh yea, the primary this spring and the general election in the fall are referendums on the president in some way.  The Republicans want control of the U.S. Senate because with both houses of Congress they can make the rest of his hair gray.  If the Senate candidates are constantly attacking Obamacare, their election is a vote on Obamacare.  To me, the people who elected Obama in the first place should vote this year also.

Senate Candidate Breakdown:  I want to put a few points about these candidates on the table…as I see it.

Michelle Nunn– Don’t sleep….she can win.  While she will be running from Obama, she can’t win without a massive pro-Obama turnout.  Her father wasn’t big on being a political party person and hopefully is the same way.  She might do well with suburb Atlanta GOP soccer moms.

Paul Broun– The Democrats so so so very much want him to be the GOP nom because he has a record of being ugly to candidate and President Obama.  He would drive large numbers of ify voters to the polls for the dems and the national fundraising for Nunn would be huge courtesy of his youtube videos.

Jack Kingston– If region trumps party with me, Kingston is the people’s champ from south Georgia.  Georgia political power is now centered in north Georgia and that is scary because you can count the Black folks up there.  Jack served Black Savannah and Savannah State University for years and dude has lived in part-time in D.C.  Because he likes to play that Andy Griffin role, Kingston knows Black and White rural Georgia inside and out.  The economic engines of our state outside of Atlanta are agriculture and military.  Those Tea Party people would cut both of those areas to the bone but Jack knows what’s up.  He should come to our summit and explain that statement about free lunch kids cleaning the schools.

Karen Handel– She would hold the GOP women vote against Nunn.  She should play up her hard knock life story.  Who knew that she attended Fredrick Douglas High School in suburban D.C.  The lady was chair of the Fulton County Commission.  Her campaign clearly doesn’t want to tap her potential support in our community.  Did I mention that she went to Doug?

David Perdue– this political newcomer is was balling in the private sector. Perdue was CEO at Reebok and at Dollar General.  DG sure brings revitalization to some rough areas and heaven knows the jobs are needed.  His campaign website contains a list of companies he has helped: Rockport, Hanes, Levi’s, Polo, Coach, and Greg Norman.  I kid you not; I can get dress in a Polo shirt, a pair of Levis, Hanes drawers, old Rockport Dressports, and Greg Norman footies.  Look for forward to Dems asking if these companies gave back to our communities.

Governor race: This race will be a referendum on Governor Nathan Deal and the GOP in the state houses refusal to expand Medicaid under Obamacare.  We need to hear the GOP alternative to Obamacare because current the uninsured are using the emergency room as a doctor’s office and that’s costly.

State House and State Senate:  With secondary regard for party, stay on your state legislators’ behinds because voter suppression and stand your ground start with them.

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